About me
I am 40 years old, hold a bachelor's degree in philosophy, and is currently working as an analyst for a media monitoring company. My university background and work specialization help me excel at identifying tendencies, patterns, and helpful conclusions so that I arrive at the right solutions to problems. This applies to my chess coaching as well.
Playing experience
I am a multiple medalist in various Lithuanian team and rapid team championships: a two-time Lithuania rapid chess medalist and a one-time blitz chess championship medalist. I've participated in many international tournaments including various world and European chess championships. My best win was at the Pobedyski Cup in Frydek-Mistek in 2008 when I scored 8/9 and achieved a 2300 ELO for a first time. I was also Kaunas chess champion in 2000. My best result in the Lithuanian standard chess championship was 8th in 2007.
Teaching experience
I have worked as a private chess coach for most of my life. Sometimes, I have helped strong players prepare for specific tournaments, especially with their openings. I also have certification from the Department of Physical Education and Sports of Lithuania and official experience coaching groups of young people.
Best skills
Pattern recognition, identifying weak points of my students, teaching them the importance of every move in chess especially when critical positions arise.
Teaching methodology
How do I usually conduct chess training sessions? First, before we start the initial lesson, I thoroughly analyze my student‘s recent games and identify his/her weaknesses. I find leaks and pay special attention to repeated mistakes from those games so we can concentrate on them in our lessons. While some coaches concentrate only on their students' opening repertoire, I ensure that game analysis is the foundation of our work, which I believe is the main path to improvement. However, I do help students with openings based on their own style, rather than forcing them to play my openings (like some other coaches do). Of course, if a student has any special needs or requests, I cover those too, leaving no questions unanswered.